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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Le Gravle Randonneurs: Putnam Valley Hard Pack

Le Gravle Randonneurs were looking for one last Gravle Ride for the 2014 season when Will suggested that we check out a route that started in Cold Spring and went around Clarence Fahnstock State Park in Putnam Valley, NY. Will sent me some cue sheets for rides in the area called Putnam Pain and Hard Pack. I searched for the routes on Ride With GPS and found the dirtiest of the two called Putnam Hard Pack.

I had to make a few changes to the route to start from Mahopac so that the starting point was easy for both Will and to find. I wanted to start closer to Taconic Parkway which would put us in the dirt faster but without really knowing the area I didn't want to take a chance on whether some parking lot that I found in an aerial photo was actually a commuter lot and accessible to the public. I figured it would be better to find a school or some other public facility and that is why I chose Mahopac Falls Elementary School as the starting point.

In the map above, green is the dirt and blue is the pave. As you can see it would have been nicer to park closer to the dirt. Of course, with every new route in which you are riding for the first time it's always a crap shoot on whether or not roads go through or not, so we'll see what we find.